I have trouble keeping one time signature in time and he is doing a different one with each limb. Makes for great discipline, or a drum solo but other than that, I'm not sure where to use it. More power to him.

In fairness, it's a lot easier to write this stuff out than verbally present in a video. A picture is worth 1000 words.

There's like 5 different parts to this little routine.

1. Play 9/16 between RH and RF (RFRFRFRFF...). Improvise on top of this with LH and LF.

2. Same as #1, but LH and LF play 9/16, and the other limbs improvise.

3. Play 9/16 with the feet (RLRLRLRLRLL...). Add 5/16 pattern with the LH (L_ll_). Then, add 7/16 with the RH (R_R_rr_). So, 3 time signatures at once.

4. Nonuplets with the feet (RLRLRLRLRll...). Add quarter notes with the hands (1, 2, 3, 4). For every quarter note played, the feet have played 9 notes. Make sense? The hands play 4/4, but the feet subdivide each quarter note into 9 smaller notes.

5. Nonuplets with the feet (cont'd). LH plays triplets (i.e. one note for every three notes the feet play). On top of all this, the RH adds 8th notes, then triplets, then 16ths, then quintuplets, then sextuplets, then septuplets, then octuplets (32nd notes), then nonuplets.

Huh, never heard him speak before-- he's a likable enough goofball. No idea what he's doing, because I can't get interested enough to try to understand it. At some point you have to decide am I a musician or not, and am I going to do things that advance that, or am I going to continue developing surplus facility for its own sake.

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I lost him after the first sentence. In contrast to Marco, here is my explanation to something I'm constantly asked about by those who watch me play: "I hit the snare drum on two and four." I love Marco, especially his work with Steven Wilson.

1. This made about as much sense as my Advanced Shakespeare II professor in undergraduate school.

2. This has no practical value in anything I will ever do or play.

3. Not all great players are great teachers. Just because you "can" do it doesn't mean you should try to "teach" it.

4. I watched (tried to watch) a few of this other drumming videos. I made it about 15 seconds into each one. Great drummer, but I'm just not into crazy syncopated patterns and extended solos playing along to midi-sounding tracks.

With all of this said, the guy's an animal and works on a whole different field than I do.

Marco is an amazing player. And he can play everything from simple to crazy hard. His technique is insane.

As for this clip, does anyone else think this is a lot harder to play than it sounds? I feel like if I'm going to work that hard at something, it has to sound a lot cooler than this. I don't think even most drummers could recognize the complexity of the pattern here just by listening to it. You could probably knock a lot more people out with fast double bass or stick twirls.

I think the pursuit of mastering stuff like this has to come from a need within you to overcome the challenge. I watched a video of Mangini at some kind of drummer camp and he was saying he would never have been satisfied just playing drums in a band; he needed to test the limits of the instrument. I'm guessing Marco is cut from that same cloth.

Marco is an amazing player. And he can play everything from simple to crazy hard. His technique is insane.

As for this clip, does anyone else think this is a lot harder to play than it sounds? I feel like if I'm going to work that hard at something, it has to sound a lot cooler than this. I don't think even most drummers could recognize the complexity of the pattern here just by listening to it. You could probably knock a lot more people out with fast double bass or stick twirls.

I think the pursuit of mastering stuff like this has to come from a need within you to overcome the challenge. I watched a video of Mangini at some kind of drummer camp and he was saying he would never have been satisfied just playing drums in a band; he needed to test the limits of the instrument. I'm guessing Marco is cut from that same cloth.

Never heard of him before this post, but thanks as I just found a bunch of youtube vids of him. He is truly phenomenal. To me the beauty of guys like this is that us mortals can pick up a few licks to enhance our playing. Some of these guys are so good it makes me laugh.

Great video Bo. I have no idea what he's doing but he makes sense out of seeming randomness. A couple really vicious licks in there too and at the end what he's playing on the ride over the two other patterns he's playing with his feet and left hand.....just sick. He can't even explain it himself!

Reminds me of Terry Bozzio's "Melodic Drummer and the Ostinato" series from long ago. I could listen to it all day, and enjoy it, but won't ever sit to figure it out. The guys who have the time to work out things like this are true unicorns.